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Forums - Gaming Discussion - Wada: Globalization has failed due to " Japanese direction"

Wada: Globalization has failed due to “Japanese direction”

Square Enix President and CEO Yoihci Wada has said that Japanese publishers have failed to globalize because their games were “always based on Japanese direction.”  

“That is a challenge of globalization, which is a different problem from revenue models. We have to appeal to customers with different preferences. Sega did not succeed. Konami did not succeed. Namco Bandai did not succeed,” Wada told VentureBeat during an interview at E3. “Western publishers have not succeeded in selling in Japan. Nobody has succeeded at globalization. But it hasn’t succeeded because it was always based on Japanese direction. It was Japanese people who commissioned the Western developers to make games.

“We acquired Eidos. By doing this, we have incorporated them in our group. They have become part of our family. It was not like we acquired slaves. In fact, the former CEO of Eidos is the European head of Square Enix. Eidos as a studio is treated as completely equal as the studio in Japan. What I wanted to do is create an environment where completely different ethnic groups can coexist in the same company. That is why we have made Eidos into a fully owned subsidiary.”

According to Wada, development done in a certain country should be handled by that race in order to pertain to the game’s cultural style.

“It is important that what’s in America should be handled by Americans. The same goes in Europe and in Japan. These people who are deeply rooted in their own cultures can engage in their own dialogues. The mistakes I have seen so far are when Japanese people try to do everything the Japanese way, using Japanese workers in different areas of the world.”

At this year’s E3, Square Enix brought a lineup developed by studios around the world including: Final Fantasy XIV (Japan), Kingdom Hearts Re: Coded (Japan), Deus Ex: Human Revolution (Canada), Kane & Lynch 2 (Denmark), and many more.



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One word: Nintendo.



very interesting, i agree for the most part in his statement.



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Xxain said:

“That is a challenge of globalization, which is a different problem from revenue models. We have to appeal to customers with different preferences. Sega did not succeed. Konami did not succeed. Namco Bandai did not succeed,” Wada told VentureBeat during an interview at E3. “Western publishers have not succeeded in selling in Japan. Nobody has succeeded at globalization. But it hasn’t succeeded because it was always based on Japanese direction. It was Japanese people who commissioned the Western developers to make games.

I want to get engaged in a thoughtful conversation concerning certain cultural biases for both consumers and producers which may prevent widespread globalization of art, but

I

just

can't

See around this giant elephant in the middle of the room



I agree with him for once... im completely shocked CAPCOM is not working on DMC5 and there is no way no other company can replicate DMC's style like CAPCOM.



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Khuutra said:
Xxain said:

“That is a challenge of globalization, which is a different problem from revenue models. We have to appeal to customers with different preferences. Sega did not succeed. Konami did not succeed. Namco Bandai did not succeed,” Wada told VentureBeat during an interview at E3. “Western publishers have not succeeded in selling in Japan. Nobody has succeeded at globalization. But it hasn’t succeeded because it was always based on Japanese direction. It was Japanese people who commissioned the Western developers to make games.

I want to get engaged in a thoughtful conversation concerning certain cultural biases for both consumers and producers which may prevent widespread globalization of art, but

I

just

can't

See around this giant elephant in the middle of the room


the ignore it



They globalization didn't fail because your games were of the Japanese direction. It failed because you kept making 360 exclusives which 360 fans obviously didn't want, hence the low sales. And the region where your games sell the most is exactly where no one even buys a 360



Xxain said:
Khuutra said:
Xxain said:

“That is a challenge of globalization, which is a different problem from revenue models. We have to appeal to customers with different preferences. Sega did not succeed. Konami did not succeed. Namco Bandai did not succeed,” Wada told VentureBeat during an interview at E3. “Western publishers have not succeeded in selling in Japan. Nobody has succeeded at globalization. But it hasn’t succeeded because it was always based on Japanese direction. It was Japanese people who commissioned the Western developers to make games.

I want to get engaged in a thoughtful conversation concerning certain cultural biases for both consumers and producers which may prevent widespread globalization of art, but

I

just

can't

See around this giant elephant in the middle of the room


the ignore it

Yeah, Khuutra. Everyone else ignores Nintendo. Why can't you?



Japanese games were just fine and sold very well during the PS1 and PS2 era :P

Nowadays, the Japanese are trying to "appeal to the western audience" for some reason. By doing that, they usually change a lot of aspects from their games that the western audience liked... and that results into the western audience not buying/caring about Japanese games as they used to because they're not what they used to be :S.

In my opinion, if they want to "globalize" their games and sell a nice ammount of units world-wide and not just in Japan, I think they should just make the games they used to make before, without trying to "westernize" anything and Japan won't have any problems in selling their games anymore.

But that's just my opinion, I might be completely wrong =P



A banner stolen from some site xD

Release Final Fantasy Versus XIII nowwwwwwwwww!!! lol :P

Japanese developers are throwing out Japanese values and creativity and uniqueness with them to cater to a western audience. Japan needs to do what Japan does best and stop trying to mimick what they see overseas. Thouhgh its hard because of the vice grip the boring west has on market  and how badly there shrinking it to a few tired bored genres and the uncreative games thst come with them.